Frank R. Lisenbee was born with the name of Frank R. Horton. He was the son of Joshua Lorenzo Horton and his wife, Nancy Ellen "Ella" Rives. When Frank was a small child, his parents split up, and his mother married Payne Lisenbee.
In the Missouri 1880 census, Frank was enumerated under the name "Frank Horton" as the step-son of Payne Lisenbee. After that time, Frank began going by the surname of Lisenbee, and all of his other records are under that name.1